Metro Vancouver rallies to help typhoon victims in the Philippines

Denise Ryan, Vancouver Sun11.12.2013

A young survivor uses a plastic cover to protect him from rain as he passes by a damaged Boy Scout statue at typhoon ravaged Tacloban city, Leyte province, central Philippines on Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2013. Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest storms on record, slammed into six central Philippine islands on Friday leaving a wide swath of destruction. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Survivors walk past damaged houses at typhoon ravaged Tacloban city, Leyte province, central Philippines on Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2013. The Philippines emerged as a rising economic star in Asia but the trail of death and destruction left by Typhoon Haiyan has highlighted a key weakness: fragile infrastructure resulting from decades of neglect and corruption. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Residents start to build shelters where their homes destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan in Tacloban, central Philippines, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2013. Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest storms on record, slammed into six central Philippine islands on Friday leaving a wide swath of destruction. (AP Photo/Wally Santana)

Philippine soldiers stand near relief supplies for victims of Typhoon Haiyan at Villamor Airbase, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2013 in Manila, Philippines. Authorities said at least 9.7 million people in 41 provinces were affected by the typhoon, which was likely the deadliest natural disaster to beset this poor Southeast Asian nation. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

Typhoon survivors hang signs from their necks as they queue up in the hopes of boarding a C-130 military transport plane Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2013, in Tacloban, central Philippines. Thousands of typhoon survivors swarmed the airport on Tuesday seeking a flight out, but only a few hundred made it, leaving behind a shattered, rain-lashed city short of food and water and littered with countless bodies. The typhoon, known as Haiyan elsewhere in Asia but called Yolanda in the Philippines, was likely the deadliest natural disaster to beset this poor Southeast Asian nation. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

Residents start to build shelters where their homes destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan in Tacloban, central Philippines, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2013. Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest storms on record, slammed into six central Philippine islands on Friday leaving a wide swath of destruction. (AP Photo/Wally Santana)

A Philippine air force officer hands out orange slices to typhoon survivors as they line up to board a C-130 military transport plane , Tuesday Nov. 12, 2013, in Tacloban city, central Philippines. Thousands of typhoon survivors swarmed the airport on Tuesday seeking a flight out, but only a few hundred made it, leaving behind a shattered, rain-lashed city short of food and water and littered with countless bodies. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

New-born baby Bea Joy is held as mother Emily Ortega, 21, rests after giving birth at an improvised clinic at Tacloban airport Monday Nov. 11, 2013 in Tacloban city, Leyte province in central Philippines. Bea Joy was named after her grandmother Beatrice, who was missing following the onslaught of typhoon Haiyan. Ortega was in an evacuation center when the storm surge hit and flooded the city. She had to swim to survive before finding safety at the airport. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

A survivor passes by damaged vehicles and houses at typhoon ravaged Tacloban city, Leyte province, central Philippines on Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2013. The Philippines emerged as a rising economic star in Asia but the trail of death and destruction left by Typhoon Haiyan has highlighted a key weakness: fragile infrastructure resulting from decades of neglect and corruption. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

One of seven statues of the team of U.S. General Douglas MacArthur reeanacting his historic landing is toppled as it was hit by strong winds during Typhoon Haiyan in Tacloban city, Leyte province, central Philippines on Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2013. Four days after Typhoon Haiyan struck the eastern Philippines, assistance is only just beginning to arrive. Authorities estimated the storm killed 10,000 or more across a vast swath of the country. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

A survivor walks beside a ship that was washed ashore hitting makeshift houses near an oil depot in Tacloban city, Leyte province central Philippines on Monday, Nov. 11, 2013. Authorities said at least 2 million people in 41 provinces had been affected by Friday's typhoon Haiyan and at least 23,000 houses had been damaged or destroyed. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Survivors pass by two large boats after they were washed ashore by strong waves caused by Typhoon Haiyan in Tacloban city, Leyte province central Philippines, on Sunday. Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest storms on record, slammed into six central Philippine Islands on Friday leaving a wide swath of destruction and thousands of people dead.Aaron Favila
/ AP

Canadian Red Cross volunteer Christine Hwang left Vancouver Sunday night for the Philippines to lend her expertise to the Philippine Red Cross as they provide relief to those affected by Typhoon Haiyan.Canadian Red Cross
/ Vancouver Sun

A child carries a chair taken from a hotel in Palo, eastern island of Leyte on Sunday, three days after devastating Typhoon Haiyan hit the area on Friday. The death toll from a super typhoon that destroyed entire towns in the Philippines could soar well over 10,000, authorities warned on Sunday, making it the country’s worst recorded natural disaster.NOEL CELIS
/ AFP/Getty Images

Survivors uses a steel roof to carry groceries and supplies in Tacloban city, Leyte province, central Philippines on Sunday, Nov. 10, 2013. The city remains littered with debris from damaged homes as many complain of shortages of food and water and no electricity since Typhoon Haiyan slammed into their province. Haiyan, one of the most powerful storms on record, slammed into six central Philippine islands on Friday, leaving a wide swath of destruction and scores of people dead.

The devastation caused by Typhoon Haiyan, are seen Sunday, Nov. 10, 2013, in Tacloban city, Leyte province in central Philippines. Typhoon Haiyan, one of the most powerful storms on record, slammed into six central Philippine islands on Friday, leaving a wide swath of destruction and scores of people dead.Toti Navales
/ AP

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METRO VANCOUVER -- Community groups and members of Metro Vancouver’s Filipino community are joining Canadian and international aid agencies to deliver disaster relief to the Philippines after typhoon Haiyan left a trail of devastation through parts of the country Friday.

That’s good news for those watching TV images of devastation and worrying about loved ones.

Nellie Vandt was born in Tacloban, one of the hardest hit cities. She has not been able to reach family members in the city eyewitnesses with stormwatching website icyclone.com describe as “ghastly” and “a horrid landscape of defoliated trees, with widespread looting and bodies decaying in the open air.”

Vandt, a North Delta resident, has barely slept since the massive storm slammed into the Philippines on Friday morning triggering a devastating storm surge that has demolished the town, wiped out communications and left an estimated 10,000 dead.

She and friends across Metro Vancouver’s 75,000-strong Filipino community are rallying to raise funds and get help to the Philippines in a joint effort between Filipinos and other Canadians who have jumped in to help.

Her friend, Sukhi Bath, a Canadian of Sikh heritage, called her right away to offer his support.

The fundraiser, United Filipino in the Community, will take place on Thursday, 6 p.m., at Surrey’s Grand Taj banquet hall.

Corporate donors are also reacting to the plight of those in the Philippines.

On Monday, Bell announced it is donating $100,000 to the Canadian Red Cross, and Rogers said it would donate $50,000, also to the Red Cross.

The Canadian Red Cross is sending volunteer and health delegate Christine Hwang to the Philippines to lend her expertise to the Philippine Red Cross.

Canada’s International Development minister Christian Paradis said on Sunday that Ottawa will match the donations of individual Canadians to typhoon relief in the Philippines in addition to $5 million dollars pledged by the Canadian government Saturday.

The leading edge of Canada’s Disaster Assistance Response Team is also on its way to the Philippines.

A Canadian Forces C-17 from CFB Trenton is en route, carrying between 35 and 50 members of the team and their gear, Foreign Minister John Baird told a news conference Monday.

The full complement of the rapid-response team, known as DART, comprises 200 Canadian Forces personnel and was last deployed following the earthquake that devastated Haiti in January 2010.

As part of the local fundraising effort, Bath called an emergency meeting Sunday at his business, Sukhi Bath Motors in Surrey, and was heartened by the immediate swell of support.

“We started on the phones yesterday and we already have a 30-member volunteer team.”

The event will feature food and entertainment. Singer and television host Luisa Marshall, a Tina Turner tribute artist originally from Manila, and host of the TV variety show Simply the Best, will perform. Marshall said other tribute artists from outside the community have called and will be performing at the event as well, including Nearly Neil (Bobby Bruce), Abracadabra, a top Vancouver-based Abba tribute band, and Elvis tribute artist Darren Lee.

Marshall says she has friends here in Vancouver whose families have been entirely swept away. “Nothing is left.”

The community will come together, she says. “Filipinos might not have a perfect country, we are regionalistic and speak different dialects, but when something like this happens we come together.”

Kuya Alvin Relleve, president of North Vancouver’s Filipino Community Centre was also manning the phones on Sunday, and holding an emergency meeting to set up a telethon.

Vandt says she is grateful for the resources Prime Minister Stephen Harper has pledged, and she expects the Filipino community will work hard to help their friends and family back home.

“I was raised that way.” Back home, she said, often her neighbours would go without food. “At six o’clock if my mother didn’t see smoke coming from a neighbour’s cookstove she would say, they aren’t cooking, they have nothing to eat, and she would send me over with our food.”

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